


The Long Night

by MonarqueNocturne



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Clock town, F/M, Feels, Gen, Kafei POV, Masks, Termina - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 10:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3726181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonarqueNocturne/pseuds/MonarqueNocturne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kafei's point of view through parts of Majora's Mask. Ficlet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Long Night

The moon was falling. 

Kafei was scared, so scared. His heart was like a loud drum. It was as if the organ was trying to flee out of his chest, flee to safety. Breathing was hard. His lungs were on fire. 

The town was a ghost town. Everybody had fled. Once in a while, the ground shook. It was as if the earth was as scared as him, shuddering in fright. 

_Where had they all fled to?_ The moon was falling. 

It was the end of the world.

***

Clock town was a small village. Everybody knew each other. 

When Anju was little - maybe then years-old or so - her father died. He had gone on an errant for the inn to another village. On the way, monsters had attacked, and the soldiers accompanying the caravan had been overwhelmed. Everybody on the expedition died. It was a traveller that had discovered the bodies and come with the news to Clock town. 

His eyes were haunted. It had been…

Gruesome. 

Life was dangerous, in Termina. Everybody knew that. There were rules. 

Never let a child go outside. Don’t leave the fortified walls at night. 

When travelling, be very, very careful. Go armed. If possible, leave the children back home. 

Monsters are everywhere. They take many forms. Leave offerings on the altar for protection. Pray. 

Sometimes, these things were not enough, and the monsters still got to you.

Kafei, when this happened, wasn’t friend with Anju. He heard of what happened, of course. Everybody did. He was slightly shocked, as much as a child can be about the death of a perfect stranger, but he quickly forgot about it. 

Until, well, he went to play with the frogs one night and found Anju on the bench, crying. 

She was cast in silvery shadows under the huge moon. She wasn’t sobbing. She wasn’t, in fact, making any sound. Only, fat tears rolled down her cheeks, soaking her collar, and she stared ahead, unmoving. 

Despair.

Kafei didn’t speak to her, and she didn’t speak to him. He stayed there, crouched near the pond, for a long time, watching Anju cry. Eventually, she got up and walked quietly away. 

The image of her expressionless face, covered in tears, stayed in his mind for a long time. 

***

The sky was magnificent. 

Kafei laid on the roof, on his back. He could hear Anju breathing quietly, on his side. 

The warm curve of her body against him -

Her small hand, sliding against his, their fingers entwining - 

The faint smell of her hair - 

Kafei turned his head to her. She was looking at him, her face serious. Always serious, his beautiful, wonderful 

_his love_

kind Anju. Kafei smiled at her and saw the warmth in her face, her own faint smile. He brought their clasped hands to his lips and tenderly kissed the inside of her wrist. 

***

When he had been small - no more than a little boy - Kafei had had a beautifully carved bird. It was his grandmother who had made it for him. It had eyes that made it look almost alive. 

Kafei had sat with his grandmother. Slowly, with care, she had showed him how to take the small carving knife and work bits of wood. Patiently, she had helped him created a small, brightly-painted mask for the wooden bird. 

For the carnival, Kafei had told his grandmother. For the carnival. 

 

Eventually his grandmother died. He buried the bird with her. 

But he kept the mask. 

***

Kafei had just thrown another ceramic pot to the wall when Anju arrived. It shattered .

The sound echoed in the following silence. Kafei looked at Anju’s expression and felt his chest constrict. Blood flooded his face. Shame pooled in his gut. But he couldn’t look away. 

Never, never would he turn his back on her. 

Frozen, he watched as Anju stepped over the debris covering the ground, broken ceramic creaking under her soles. She raised her small hands to his face and pulled him down, until their foreheads touched. 

They both closed their eyes and breathed, like that, for a long time. 

***

Kafei, feeling strangely naked without the fox mask on, kicked his heels as he talked. He was sitting on his writing desk. His guest, the little boy in green, was listening to him intently. 

He was small and too thin, black rounds under his eyes, and he looked at Kafei with a solemn look and an absolute attention that, strangely, reminded him of Anju. 

Maybe that’s why Kafei spoke, now. 

He explained his story. How he had lost his adult form, and then his wedding mask.

_Oh, his wedding mask - he had poured his_ soul _in that mask_ -

He didn’t talk about the fear and pain and sadness and anger that plagued him. 

Somehow, he felt as if the boy understood it perfectly without needing any word. 

***

At night he woke up gasping. Sweat all over. His heart a wild thing, beating with the force of an orchestra. Fear, fear gripped him at the throat and he feared that he would die, right there, from it. His hands shook violently. Wheezing, he tumbled out of bed. 

Images flashed before his eyes. 

_the imp, with the evil mask, laughing, laughing -_

_his reflection in the water, distorted, small, why so small -_

_panic_

He barely got to the lavatory to throw up. 

***

Kafei sat on the bed, next to the fairy child, and talked about himself. Even if he had met him only a day ago, he felt as if he was an old friend, someone he’d known for a long, long time. 

“You know, Anju saved me.”

Kafei leaned against the wall, looking at the ceiling pensively.

“Have you met my parents? The mayor and his wife. Oh. You have. I see.” Kafei sighed. A long, slow sigh. “It was... After talking to them, sometimes, I’d explode in rage. Break things. I wanted to beat my head against the wall. I think I did, once. Anju…”

Kafei looked down at his hands. 

“She…” He couldn’t finish. He didn’t know how to put into words how Anju helped him out of the all-consuming anger and despair that had been eating his insides. 

He glanced at the boy, who nodded at him. 

_I know_ , his gaze seemed to say. _I know._

***

_He was dreaming._

_He was walking somewhere. He was holding somebody’s hand - a small, warm palm against his. The sun was setting, and long, long shadows were cast against the sky. There was a strangely alluring perfume in the air - spring, perhaps? He squeezed the small hand, feeling content_

_She wasn’t there anymore. He was on the top of the Clock tower. All around him, Termina was a monstrous mirror of itself, twisted and wrong almost beyond recognition_

_The moon was staring at him, a horrible grimace on its demonic features_

_And the clock was ringing, loud and clear into the chaotic noise of people screaming and fleeing_

_DONG_

_DONG_

_DONG_

_DONG_

_DONG_

_The world erupted in flames_

***

The curse broke. 

The imp’s mask was destroyed and Kafei regained his old form. Child hands were now a man’s hands, with strong fingers and bulging blue veins. Everything looked smaller, from this perspective. 

The moon looked as it had always done, back to its normal appearance. 

Kafei had his marriage mask between his hands. A part of himself restored, ready to be given to his other half. 

His heart almost bursting with happiness, Kafei turned to share it with the fairy boy.

He wasn’t there anymore.

***

At his marriage ceremony, Anju pointed discreetly to somebody in the crowd. Kafei felt his heart lift at the familiar green sight. He smiled at the child, but his attention was immediately demanded elsewhere. He had Anju to take as his wife, after all. 

After the vows, the speeches and the first dances, Kafei took his beloved’s hand and made his way to the back of the crowd with her, where they found the boy, sitting on a wooden bench. He looked up at them, smiling. His eyes were sunken with fatigue. His fairy wasn’t anywhere to be seen. 

As the boy smiled at them, Kafei had the fleeting thought that he had never something so sad.

The couple both took one of the child’s hand and guided him to a secluded corner, where they all sat huddling together. Long minutes passed. In the background, laughter and music filled the air. 

Finally the boy started to speak, his voice rough with lack of usage. It was hard, at first. Frequently he stopped, and always Kafei and Anju would let him take his time to continue. Haltingly, painfully, his story came to their ears. 

Hours passed. Kafei waved away everybody that came their way, offering reassuring smiles to his guests. Finally, the boy’s words slowed to nothing, and hunger and tiredness forced them to move. They gave their goodnights to the guests of the wedding who, following Termina’s tradition, would probably be partying until the sun rose. Then they went to the inn. 

There they ate warm soup and whispered through the night, pressed against each other, a warm duvet covering their shoulders. 

***

Morning came.

Watching the sun rays filter through the window after their sleepless night, Kafei reached inside his hidden pocket and pulled out a small wooden carving. 

He pressed it into the boy’s hand, who watched him do so with confusion written on his face.

Kafei glanced at his wife, who met his gaze. They smiled at each other before turning back to the child. 

“Thank you,” they said. 

The boy examined the small, brightly colored mask for a long time, before looking up at the couple with a brilliant smile. 

The sun was up.

**Author's Note:**

> I find Anju and Kafei's story fascinating. Majora is a game full of powerful feelings - mostly related to fear - so I couldn't resist exploring that a little bit.


End file.
